Boost to Finnish energy opportunities in India

Energy business cooperation between Finland and India got a push of the highest level as Piyush Goyal, Indian Minister of State with Independent Charge for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy and Mines, visited Team Finland House and Finpro to attend Indo-Finland Seminar focusing on energy cooperation on November 4, 2016. Minister Goyal attended the seminar with a high-level business delegation and Kai Mykkänen, Finnish Minister for Foreign Trade and Development.

The seminar focused on showing how the expertise and offering of Finnish energy companies could benefit India as the country’s energy sector is undergoing a huge shift towards the application of cleaner forms of energy and smart solutions. The sectors of renewable energy and smart grid, waste-to-value, and bioenergy were at the top of the agenda.

Before the seminar, Goyal had already met with the Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipilä to discuss energy cooperation.

Largest renewables project in the world

It goes without saying that India offers numerous lucrative opportunities for Finnish companies. And although some companies are already established in the market, India perhaps remains a somewhat unknown land of possibilities to Finns. Goyal stressed that this is exactly the reason why he wanted to come to Finland in the first place: he sees great potential in the business cooperation of the two nations.

The minister called India’s investments in clean energy the biggest renewable energy project in the world. In addition to energy, the rapidly urbanizing country offers huge projects especially in clean water, green mining and smart mobility as India is looking to rapidly become a more sustainable country, offering a much improved quality of life to its citizens.

To give only two examples on the size of the projects, India is in the process of replacing all street lighting with LEDs while 50 000 new waste water plants will be set up in the near future.

How to grasp the opportunities?

Finland is obviously by no means alone in looking for export opportunities in India. And although Finnish core expertise effectively ticks all the boxes of the India’s biggest demand areas, it is no simple task to get a foothold in the markets. The immense size of the projects alone may feel daunting while also the business environment may put companies off. The minister, however, wanted to put especially the latter point to rest by assuring that their government is making the business system more flexible – establishing one set of taxes and one marketplace.

To conclude the seminar, Goyal offered his advice in terms of the solutions that he expects Finland to offer. The minister highlighted that although it is admirable that Finnish companies offer the very highest quality solutions and level of innovation, what India needs from Finland are scalable solutions that are affordable, of adequately good quality, and that must be calibrated to local needs.

Where do we go from here in Finland-India cooperation?

While the business seminar gave a great impetus to the energy business cooperation of the two countries, there is still plenty of work to be done for Finnish companies to take full advantage of the opportunities that India offers.

Cleantech Finland’s Renewables & Smart Grid export program is doing exactly that work by connecting Finnish energy companies with verified Business Opportunities as well as partners in the markets that offer the best and most relevant opportunities in the field – India being one of these. Already concrete export actions have been taken to speed up the business cooperation of Finland and India.

"In March 2016, Cleantech Finland signed a MoU with India’s largest power company Tata Power. This collaboration gives Finnish companies a better access to renewables and smart grid business opportunities in India’s lucrative power distribution sector," said Jussi Vanhanen, Cleantech Finland Program Director.

"Minister Goyal’s visit to Finland and Finpro went a long way to verify this export potential. His message to Finnish companies was also very positive: India wants to use Finnish expertise in the projects they are undertaking," Vanhanen continued.

Along with Renewables & Smart Grid program, Cleantech Finland offers two other export programs, High-efficiency Buildings and Clean Water. Cleantech Finland welcomes all Finnish companies to participate in the programs to together take advantage of the verified opportunities in the right markets.

Indo-Finland Seminar was organized by Finpro, Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland together with the support of Finnish-Indian Trade Association.